Break-ups and Fluttering Things
by ForteDragon
Summary: Who will Asuna turn to in the end? What if things become even more complicated? How will she react when she finds love in an unexpected place? Asuna x Yuuki. Cover image not owned, but edited by me
1. Chapter 1

The door slammed, and Asuna dashed out into the dark night, her long hair streaming out behind her, contrasting with the aquamarine shadows around her. She continued to run; to where she didn't know. Though she did feel immensely disappointed, her eyes were surprisingly dry and empty of tears. Earlier she had an argument with her boyfriend-well, ex boyfriend, Kirigaya Kazuto. Even though they had been together for many years in SAO, he didn't feel that their relationship was working out anymore. Their interactions before then had become increasingly awkward, as Asuna and Kazuto's schedules did not line up very well and both of them, not being very outgoing or sociable, didn't have much more to say to each other. They did still enjoy one another's company, but their relationship felt platonic. Asuna really had loved Kazuto, and she knew he felt the same. But as many relationships do, theirs eventually died out.

* * *

Before she realized, Asuna was standing in front of her own house. It glowed warmly in the chilly summer night air. Her gaze softened. Somehow, she ended up going to a place where she could at least find solace in videogames. She pulled out her keys and entered her house. Asuna quickly slipped off her shoes and ran to her room. Positioning herself comfortably on her bed, she slipped on her Amusphere and started it up.

Once she had signed on to ALO, she was immediately greeted with a message from Yuuki, her Imp friend. Asuna opened the message in a few quick taps.

 _Hi, Asuna! What's up?_ It said.

 _Hey, Yuuki...Today has not been a good day for me._ She responded.

 _Oh…I see. Do you want to talk about it? If you do, let's meet up at the cafe by the World Tree._

The Undine typed a quick affirmation and flew off to meet Yuuki.

* * *

"So...What happened?" Yuuki prompted her as soon as they found a free table. The cafe was rather busy, as usual. Many players chatted animatedly with their guildies and friends.

"I guess I should have seen it coming, but Kirito broke up with me earlier today." Asuna spoke sadly. "I know we've been distant lately, but I didn't think he'd be the one to break it off. I really do wish we were still just as close as ever…"

Something flickered in Yuuki's eyes as she listened intently. "You guys have always been pretty close, though. Are you still interested in him romantically?"

"Well, not really. I find that weird, though. After all, I used to love him so much…"

"Then I think you'll be fine. You guys can still be friends, anyway. No use dwelling on why you feel different!"

"I suppose you're right…" Asuna smiled. The younger girl always had a way of cheering her up, even when she never said anything special- or anything at all. Her positive attitude covered up her painful past, but that was how she responded to her troubles.

"C'mon, Asuna, let's go do that quest that you haven't finished yet!" Yuuki grabbed her blue-haired friend's hand and cheerfully pulled her out of the cafe. The two girls then warped to the field where the raid boss would be spawning soon.

* * *

Asuna and Yuuki stood on a wide expanse of grass, devoid of trees. A murky lake sat in the middle, bordered by overgrown cat tails and other aquatic plants. The field boss was nowhere to be seen. Curious, Asuna knelt by the lake, wondering if, perhaps the field boss lived below the surface. Sure enough, a scaly head shot out from the brackish water, displacing much of the liquid from the lake. "Watch out!" Yuuki shouted, pulling Asuna away from the edge of the lake. The Undine fell backwards into the Imp, causing both to land in a rather awkward and uncomfortable position. Their faces flushed before Asuna quickly moved off of Yuuki and they both got up, turning to focus their attention on the field boss. The two faced a emerald green serpent with gigantic flippers and menacing eyes. The serpent's name displayed as 'Loch Neid'.

A loud roar resonated from deep within the Loch Neid as it reared its head. Yuuki winced and covered her ears. "Man, that thing sounds like a band of fog horns..."

Asuna laughed, "Yeah, but it's probably much more deadly."

The Undine quickly casted a defense spell on both her comrade and herself. Yuuki attempted to fly up and perform an aerial attack on the serpent, but it swiveled it's head to face her and fired a stream of high pressure water, which she narrowly avoided. Meanwhile, Asuna had also opted to aerial tactics, as she would not be able to reach the serpent in the middle of the lake otherwise.

"Go for it's eyes and neck! It has less defenses there," the purple haired swordswoman called out.

"Alright!" Asuna proceeded to launch lightning-fast stabs towards the Loch Neid's eyes. Diving and swooping, the two gradually chipped down the lake dwelling serpent's hitpoints.

Once the serpent's health fell into the red, it executed a dive and splashed a wave of water at Asuna. She was too slow to avoid the huge airborne mass of water. Like a blade, it knocked her from the sky and she fell to the ground, half of her health gone.

"Asuna..!" Yuuki darted a look back to check if she was badly injured, before gripping her sword tightly and performing her 11-hit sword skill, Mother's Rosario, on the serpent as it re-emerged from the lake.

The Loch Neid's HP drained completely and it shattered into many digitized fragments, which rained down, slipping back into the lake's dark waters. Asuna got up slowly as a bell chimed to indicate their defeat of the raid boss and the completion of her quest. The two were rewarded with copious amounts of gold and experience points.

"Good work!" Yuuki grinned, giving Asuna a thumbs up.

"Sorry for not being that helpful..." Asuna said sheepishly. She was a berserker-healer, but her damage and attacks were limited.

"It's fine. I like you a lo- I mean, I like your fighting style a lot." The Imp's lame attempt to cover up her words did not go unnoticed by Asuna. Yuuki rarely stuttered or slipped up when speaking, and she heard her words loud and clear.

"Wait, did you just-?" Asuna questioned.

"No, no! It's nothing. Forget what I said," Yuuki hastily replied.

Suddenly a 'ping' sound went off from Asuna's alerts. She had been online for many hours, and her mom would be home soon. Her mom would be unhappy if she knew Asuna had been playing video games instead of studying or going to bed. "Oh, shoot, it's late. I have to go. See you later, Yuuki."

She gave a quick wave and logged off.

* * *

Asuna slid off her AmuSphere with a sigh. What was going on with Yuuki?

* * *

A/N: There's a reference to Mabinogi's field boss, Neid (which is also probably a reference to the Loch Ness monster) in here, if you noticed. Sorry if the line spacing is weird, I'm not very clear on how lines should be formatted when showing dialogue. I will be continuing this, but probably only for a chapter or two.


	2. Chapter 2

Yuuki's heartbeat eventually calmed and she sank down into the tall grass of the field. She clutched at her chest. Why did she feel this way? Wasn't Asuna just a friend to her? She did find the Undine attractive and kind, but she hadn't really considered her as a potential partner. Then again, Yuuki didn't think about romantic relationships often.

"Well, I guess I might like to try falling in love at least once before I…" She couldn't finish her murmured sentence. Slowly, she rose from her sitting position and composed herself. She took a deep breath and released it, forcing a smile to her face. Even though she was a little bit scared, she wouldn't try to hide her feelings anymore.

* * *

Meanwhile, Asuna was confronting the unexpected confession (was it even a real confession?) much less calmly than her Imp friend. She turned over in bed, gazing at the glowing numbers on the digital clock on her nightstand. Many thoughts raced about in her head, the target of most of them being Yuuki. Asuna wasn't sure what Yuuki even meant when she had said that she liked her a lot. Was it just friendship? Probably not, based on the purple-haired girl's reaction. But if Yuuki had meant that she liked her romantically, Asuna didn't know whether or not she felt the same. She did feel a connection to her, right from the start. At that time she had been dating Kazuto, though, so she hadn't looked at anyone else the same way she had viewed him.

Besides, if Asuna and Yuuki ended up in a relationship, there would be no way her parents would approve. They didn't even like Kazuto. What would they think if their daughter started dating a girl? A hospitalized, dying one to top it all off? Asuna's face reddened. Relationships were so complicated. She didn't even know if she was ready for one so soon after she broke up with Kazuto. Asuna groaned into her pillow. She wouldn't get any sleep if this continued.

For now, I can just try to sleep, and deal with it later, She thought, It's not that uncomfortable, though, this feeling in my heart.

* * *

When Asuna next logged on to Alfheim Online, she was greeted by a cheerful Yuuki, who happened to be around the area she spawned at. Together, they walked through the streets of one of the lower level towns, browsing player and NPC shops. Yuuki seemed to be behaving like she usually did, if not a bit more clingy. Asuna wasn't bothered by the physical contact, but it reminded her of the events that occurred last night.

As they walked on, the people thinned out, and they reached a quieter, emptier section of the town. Asuna, realizing she could have more privacy to question Yuuki on what she meant after defeating the raid boss, pulled her purple haired friend into a side alley.

"About last night, what did you mean when you said...you know...?"

Yuuki tilted her head, feigning confusion.

"Err...What I'm trying to say is, do you like me?

"Yeah, of course!"

"Do you...Love me?" Asuna's felt color rushing to her cheeks, even though she was the one interrogating the other.

"Yup!"

Asuna was taken aback by her straightforward reply. "S- Since when?!"

"Uhm...Probably a while, I just never realized it."

The Undine no longer knew how to respond. Her face was beet red and it seemed as if she were trying to physically digest Yuuki's words.

"So, since I answered you, how about you tell me if you love me too?" Yuuki smirked, already knowing what to expect.

"Well, I...I..." It seemed impossible for Asuna's face to get any redder. "I guess so...? I mean, I don't dislike you, and I do think I like you as more than a friend...What I mean is..."

"Is that a yes?" Yuuki was grinning from ear to ear now, almost like the Cheshire Cat, only significantly less creepy.

It took a few seconds before Asuna responded, "I- Uhm...Definitely," She finished in a small voice.

Upon hearing this, Yuuki was elated, and wrapped Asuna in a bear hug. She was muttering something something along the lines of, 'How can you be this cute?!' And, 'Holy fudge, she said yes!'.

Thank god the alley was too dark for any passerby to notice the flushed smiles on both of the girls' faces.

* * *

A/N: I screwed up the grammar in the end. Yay.

/shot

The real A/N: I wanted to write a more light-hearted story that was still representative of Asuna and Yuuki's relationship. May add another chapter, but it's probably going to be short, fluffy, and have almost no plot whatsoever, because I could probably write a whole (cruddy) novel with just them cuddling or something.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: The end of this is kind of rated T, just as a warning. I'm kind of paranoid, though. This is going to be the last chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it :)

* * *

Yuuki and Asuna were relaxing at Kirito's house. Although Asuna had divorced him in-game, they still hung out at his house rather often, as did many of their friends. Today the house was surprisingly quiet. Asuna was reading a book on the lore of the World Tree. Yuuki had snuggled up on the couch with Asuna, her head on the other girl's lap. Her eyes were closed, but she was not sleeping, merely enjoying a quiet moment with her girlfriend.

Kirito walked into the room with Yui perched on his shoulder. Yuuki opened her eyes upon hearing him enter the room. Asuna looked up from her book.

"I'm going to be clearing some of the new are area we discovered yesterday now with Lisbeth, Klein, Leafa, and Sinon. You guys enjoy yourselves, and don't mess up my house." He joked.

"Alright." Asuna went back to reading her book.

"I can't guarantee the last part." Yuuki muttered, loud enough for Kirito to hear.

As Kirito turned to leave, he shot Yuuki a thumbs up and mouthed, 'She's all yours'.

Yuuki's eyes widened, surprised that he had realized their relationship, even though neither of them had told him they were dating yet. She quickly glanced at Asuna, and relaxed, seeing that the Undine was still engrossed with her book.

"Asuna? How much do you love me?" Yuuki spoke up suddenly. Asuna set down her book.

"This much," She said, gesturing with outstretched arms.

Yuuki pouted. "But I love you as much as the equivalent of ALO."

"You know what I mean. There are no words to express how I feel. Even 'I love you' isn't accurate enough." Asuna blushed as she tried to console the Imp.

Yuuki cupped Asuna's face with her hands and planted a kiss on her cheek, purposely making it wet and sloppy.

"Hey...! What are you doing?!" The blue haired girl exclaimed, more surprised than angry.

Yuuki proceeded to tickle Asuna's sides. Soon the girl was practically begging her to stop.

"S-stop," She said between muffled bursts of laughter, "W-what do you want, Yuuki?"

"Let's cuddle since Kirito's gone!" Yuuki said, wrapping her arm around Asuna's waist.

"But I haven't finished my book..." Asuna protested.

"Ah come on, you can read it later. Your eyes have been glued to that book all day. If I didn't know better I would think you were reading the secrets to the world or a guide to lesbian se-" Yuuki ended her sentence abruptly. Asuna looked absolutely mortified, so much so that the Imp broke out into a fit of giggles.

"I'm kidding."

"You better be," Said Asuna, "But alright, you got your point across." And with that she pushed down the smaller girl and kissed her firmly. Breaking away, she took the opportunity to get revenge on Yuuki for tickling her earlier.

* * *

They proceeded to cuddle for an hour, and Kirito came home to see the two girls pull away from each other and sit awkwardly on opposite ends of the couch, Yuuki smoothing down her hair, and Asuna hiding her face behind her book.

* * *

A/N: Well that escalated quickly. I'm not sure if it's just fluff anymore... Writing Asuna x Yuuki makes me so happy, it scares me (don't take this a weird way). Now that I got this out of my system, I shall return to writing more bittersweet stories.


End file.
